THE son of a couple buried in Eashing Cemetery has made an emotional plea to the Godalming community to work together to find out who desecrated 12 graves there.

Julian High, whose parents Dilys and Alan were laid to rest in the Ockford Ridge grounds in 1996, said he had been sickened and appalled to learn about the vandalism.

“I just couldn’t believe that someone would stoop so low,” he said. “These are the graves of people’s families, I can’t understand how or why someone would attack them like this.

“I want to know what motivates someone like that. I just don’t understand it.

"I would ask them how they would feel if it was their family, if someone did it to their mother’s or their sister’s or daughter’s headstone.

“I would appeal to anyone who knows who has done this to come forward, to talk to the police.

"I would ask them to search their conscience and ask themselves whether they really should be protecting the person who has done this.”

Mr High, the son of an architect, grew up in Godalming and lived in Farnham and Weybridge before emigrating to Ohio in eastern America in 2001.

He said he was not able to visit the UK as often as he would like, and that he had been worried about someone returning to the cemetery and possibly attacking his parents’ grave.

“That is something that has been causing me distress,” said the 56-year-old.

“To know that I am all the way over here and I can’t do anything to protect their memory.”

Twelve graves at the Franklyn Road cemetery were desecrated on November 16 or 17, the Monday and Tuesday after Remembrance Sunday.

Two of them, military graves of men who served in the First World War, were broken in half with a heavy instrument. Seven others were attacked with such violence that they were reduced to small mounds of rubble.

A week later, cemetery officials discovered damage to three further graves, in a different area of the 16-acre grounds and just yards from where children are buried.

Surrey Police is asking anyone with information about what happened to come forward. To speak to an officer call 0845 125 2222, quoting reference WV/09/7248.